Fighting Youth Violence One Boy at a Time 

By Jody Vilschick


Closing the Gap, Men’s Health • September/October 2001


Vladimir Joseph was left behind. His 

inner strength and a few helping 

hands allowed him to catch up, and 

in turn, extend a helping hand to the current 

generation of African American boys living 

the violent life on the streets. 

The first time he was left behind, Joseph returned to an empty apartment where 

he had been living with his mother and sister 

since his parents were divorced when he was 

seven years old. His mother and sister moved 

out, leaving him alone. “I was thirteen and 

homeless, but I knew my way around,” says 

Joseph. His life on the South Bronx streets, 

however, soon led to his being attacked, which 

turned out to be a positive. After a stint in 

the hospital, he was sent to a shelter. “That 

got me back to school,” says Joseph. “I loved 

school. I could be myself and kick some academic ass. I could exchange ideas and be safe.” 

Outside of school, however, he was involved in gang activity. In eleventh grade his 

life was seriously threatened, and he thought 

he would have to kill or be killed. “I didn’t 

bother people, but I had my gun when I got 

caught by the police,” says Joseph. “If I didn’t 

get locked up right then, I probably would 

have killed someone an hour later.” 

Those were bad times, he remembers. 

“Crooked cops, friends dying—it was nothing to see people die on the street,” he says. 

Eventually, he found his way to a group 

home run by a Catholic priest, who encouraged him to pursue his academic dreams and 

go to college. He chose Morehouse College. 

Located in Atlanta, Georgia, it was just about 

as far away from the streets of the South Bronx 

as a young boy could get. “In my environment, the only successful Black men were 

running guns and crack,” he says. “At 

Morehouse, the students’ dads were judges 

and professors.” 

After graduating from Morehouse, Joseph knew he wanted to help young boys, 

who, like him, needed a little help and encouragement to escape the violent street life. 

While working other jobs, he founded Inner 

Strength in 1996. “The group was just me 

for a while,” he remembers. 

The Morehouse College Family Life 

Center (MCFLC) collaborates with Inner 

Strength to reduce youth violence and the 

resulting fear of crime. They do this by providing mentors—college students from 

Morehouse, Spelman, Morris-Brown, and 

Clark-Atlanta, all nearby historically black 

colleges and universities—who share how 

they stayed out of trouble and turned their 

lives around. They also take the troubled kids 

on overnight trips, usually hiking and camping. “We’ve witnessed that when you take a 

kid out of his environment and bring him to 

a different place and challenge him to look at 

himself in a different way, change becomes 

tangible,” says Joseph. “You sit in the ghetto 

and tell him, ‘you know you got to do something,’ and he’ll say, “yeah, whatever.’” 

The MCFLC also conducts a threeweek “Summer Academy” for 30 boys, which 

is designed to sharpen participants’ reading 

and basic math skills, and provide opportunities to focus on career development and 

job exploration. Field trips and sessions on 

African American history and current issues 

help the boys develop a sense of who they are 

and a better understanding of the history of 

African Americans in this country. 

“We thrive on creating a safe space where 

kids feel it’s okay to be vulnerable and ask 

questions,” says Joseph. “We let them know 

we’ll be there for them.” 

The MCFLC is part of the Family and 

Community Violence Program (FCVP), 

which was developed under a cooperative 

agreement between the Office of Minority 

Health and Central State University, in 

Wilberforce, OH. Its goal is to affect the increasing violence and abusive behavior in lowincome, at-risk communities through the 

mobilization of community partners to address these issues. Now, the FCVP coordinates and directs the activities of Family Life 

Centers at 24 historically African American 

colleges and universities, institutions primarily serving Hispanics, Native American tribal 

colleges and universities, and other minorityfocused institutions in 17 states, the District 

of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. 

“Every one of these kids has someone in 

his neighborhood who is a drug dealer and 

will help him get into that life if he wants to,” 

says Joseph. “We provide another option.”

Violence Among Young Men 

3⁄4 Intentional violence accounts for one-third of all injury deaths in the United States. 

3⁄4 Intentional interpersonal violence disproportionately involves young people as both 

perpetrators and victims; young males between the ages of 15 and 24 are disproportionately involved in violent acts. 

3⁄4 Among minority youth, particularly African Americans, violence has struck with 

unique force in recent years. Homicide has been the leading cause of death among 

African American males between the ages of 15-24 for more than ten years. 

3⁄4 Nationally, in 1999, 83 percent of school homicide or suicide victims were males. 

Information source: National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, 2001 

Office of Minority Health Resource Center U.S. Department of Health and Human Services